A Wynning Trip

We arrived back at Wynn ready to take on the casino one last final time for the trip. This would be before playing one last final time for the trip in the morning and then playing one last final time for the trip at the airport.

Day 11 part 5

I had a good feeling about the row of newer IGT machines where I'd gotten the Pointies for $200. But I had unfinished business there, having been denied the kicker, yet again.

Triple Double Bonus once again was my video elixir of choice.

Because I am so crappy at getting kickers, I didn't bother to take a 'before' picture. Suffice it to say that I was dealt three deuces and a 3 kicker. That old saw.

We had a long discussion about what was the right thing to do. The Quad Queen leans toward keeping just the three deuces because getting four deuces would be great and you still might get a kicker. But drawing just one card, you have to get the one exact card. The cost in EV for this is maybe $2.50 over the long haul.

I, on the other hand, like to play the right strategy. If I only held the deuces and got the fourth deuce and a non kicker in place of the kicker I threw away - I'd be pissed. I'd feel like I lost $300.

The best thing to do for these kinds of hands is to decide how you are going to play it always, and always play it that way.

So far I've been holding the three of a kind and the kicker for Aces and 2s,3s,4s on this game as one should.

And that's what I did.

I pressed the draw button fully expecting to get the 8 of hearts or some other useless dog card. To my shock and amazement, the fourth deuce appeared!

My mouth literally fell open and I turned to the Quad Queen and said, my eyes wide in wonder, "I... got it. I actually got it!!!"

Four ducks. Got the kicker, though.

And there it is, in all its kicker glory. A beautiful $500 hand to finish off my trip.

The Quad Queen wanted to get in on the fun, and actually did get drawn three 4s or something, with a kicker, same game. But she did opt to hold just the three of a kind and sadly, it was a double thud, with two dogs showing up.

She didn't strike out completely, though.

Four Queens the hard way.

For our last session, we headed up to the slant tops near the lobby. Even though I'd nailed my unicorn hand at last, I still felt like I could get a Keno hit one last time.

We played for quite a while, but I perversed, because I don't give up. I kept at it, too. I decided to keep it simple, a straight five spot play, 50 cents a pull. No hedging. Get it or nothing.

Dammit if I didn't hit five out of five.

Hmm, maybe I should have played a six spot corner. :)

I took my pictures, played it down to $400, and cashed out.

"I'm done," I pronounced, with the air and seriousness of a spy gambler who is done.

"What do you mean, you're done?"

"I'm done. Done gambling for this trip. That's it. I'm not playing any more."

"What about tomorrow morning? What about the airport?"

"You know me. I say what I mean and I mean what I say, until I do something different."

It had been such a perfect way to end the day and the trip, getting the kicker on video poker on a one card draw, and getting a final video keno win. A kind of victory lap.

I didn't want to ruin the feeling of accomplishment and luck and winning and having not screwed up for a change by doing some desperation plays and flying home muttering "what a waste of money at the airport".

Meanwhile, the Quad Queen was trying to recover her session, having played $100 and not gotten anything. She switched to dollars, Lazarused a few times, and then brought it home.

The eyeballs of savvy readers will note that the win amount of $125 is also the credit amount. Her quad hit when she bet her last five bucks.

The results of my evening. Hell, yeah!

We headed back to the room, basking in a great evening, and a great trip.

This trip was so much fun, really, really enjoyable. We'd had big wins right through the trip, royals, keno hits, hand pays, family dinners, wet bacon poultices, and we both ranked it up in the top three or four trips.

The only thing left undone was paying BomberGal's bet off for the Grey Cup win. I still owe her a cocktail waitress tip.

And with that, we packed up, and got ready to fly home the next day, fortunately, at a reasonable hour.

Day 11	Result
Royal Flusher	$690
Quad Queen	$-300
Combined Total	$390

Trip Final Results	Result
Royal Flusher	$-175
Quad Queen	$228
Combined Total	$53

It was too bad that the Queen had had a couple of bad days at the end, but this time I covered for her. I only lost $175 on the whole trip, including my El Cortez long playing keno ticket that added $20 to my wallet a day after we got home.

Amazingly, between us, we had a winning trip, netting $53. The only room we paid for was at the Pearson Sheraton on the way home. (That turned out to be a disaster that triggered a donation of 20,000 points to my Marriott account, enough for a free night sometime, so not so bad.)

We paid very little for food, maybe 80% of it being comped, including a side of beef's worth of meat at steakhouses.

Hard expenses including business class airfare, train fare, hotel, tips, food and liquor purchased, and bail money were about $3,150 US.

Let's have a look at comps, including rooms from the Wynn Slots app.

Spy Who Felted Me Comps	Value (US$)
Luxor Suite 4 nights	$600
Luxor FP	$75
Luxor Food	$200
Wynn	$800
Cal FP	$15
Cal FP	$10
Cal kiosk FP	$75
Cal room	$400
Cal kiosk food	$75
Cal kiosk FP	$55
Cal kiosk food	$125
Fremont buffet	$30
MSS kiosk FP	$15
Cal kiosk FP	$10
Fremont kiosk FP	$10
Golden Gate FP	$10
MSS kiosk FP	$25
MSS buffet	$24
MSS kiosk FP	$5
MSS kiosk food	$25
Cal kiosk FP	$10
Cosmo FP	$50
Fremont food	$8
Boyd points FP	$28
Boyd points FP	$10
El Cortez FP	$35
El Cortez FP	$35
Total	$2,920

Our comps almost balanced our costs, which to most people means a half-price trip, but to me, means a free trip, because accounting spin.

And, we won $53 to boot, so gambling cost was nil.

Over eleven days in Las Vegas, you know how incredibly hard it is to do that.

Yup, aside from the fact that I didn't vanquish Egon Mukx, and didn't get a Royal, this trip was damn hard to beat.

And, by the way, I didn't play any more after the final night. Shocking, but there you have it.

We thoroughly enjoyed it, and I hope you enjoyed reading about it.

Thanks for reading, and now the pubic service announcement. There are out of pocket costs for running the blog, such as AA batteries for Jimmy Poon's 2006 HP mouse, and each of these blog posts takes a couple of hours or more of screwing around on the computer.

So, if you've had a chuckle, or enjoyed a diversion, or vicariously felt like you were in Vegas, I wouldn't mind if you showed your appreciation by throwing a cup of coffee our way, as long as it's not too hot.

Thanks to Michael James, Anon, Anon, Vegas Bebe, Irish Dave, and Turb for the coffees!
Thanks to donators this trip S.P., E.S., T.K., R.J., B.G., and YOleven!